One number and one letter had many of Australia's politicians talking this week. 18C is a section of law that talks about racial discrimination. Some politicians say it should be changed to allow people to speak more freely. Others say that would be dangerous. Here's more on the issue.

Whether sharing their favourite foods, helping tie hijabs, or creating interesting body art; kids all around Australia came together on Harmony Day to celebrate different cultures!

KID 1: My group's a Bollywood group, we're doing Indian stuff.

KID 2: We're making kites out of straws and paper in Afghanistan and Pakistan, kites were really popular.

But on the same day, there wasn't much harmony in Australia's federal parliament! So what was all this arguing about? Well it was all to do with Australia's racial discrimination act. Let's go back in time to find out what that is.

You probably know that racial discrimination has been a big problem in Australia. For a long time, Indigenous Aussies were treated really badly/ They weren't even counted as citizens until the 1960s! There was also something called the White Australia Policy, which stopped many Asian and African from people entering the country.

WOMAN, ARCHIVE VISION: I think there's no two ways about it, we'd soon become outnumbered here if we allowed the Asiatics in.

But in the 1960s, more people started speaking out against discrimination. There were big protests to get equal rights for Indigenous Aussies and people from other cultures.

Then in 1975, the Federal government introduced the Racial Discrimination Act. It made it illegal to treat someone unfairly because of their race. Twenty years later, in 1995, another section was added to those laws, called Section 18C. It made it illegal to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate a person based on their race.

In recent years, that part has caused some controversy. Like in 2011, when a newspaper columnist was found to have broken 18C in two articles he'd written about Indigenous Australians a couple of years earlier. Some people thought the ruling was unfair and campaigned to change 18C, but it never happened.

That brings us up to date! PM Malcolm Turnbull says now his government will have another go at changing it.

PRIME MINISTER MALCOLM TURNBULL: Section 18C has lost its credibility. It lost it a long time ago.

He wants to scrap the words ‘offend’, ‘insult’ and ‘humiliate’ and replace them with the word 'harass'. The idea is to make a clearer line between someone feeling threatened or just having their feelings hurt by comments about their race. The government says the change will help protect free speech, even if it's the kind of speech some people don't like, so only the more serious cases would be taken to court.

PRIME MINISTER MALCOLM TURNBULL: We are strengthening the race hate laws, these are stronger laws, more effective laws because they are clearer laws.

But some politicians are incredibly worried about that change and say it could make people think it's ok to say racist things.

TONY BURKE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR CITIZENSHIP AND MULTICULTURAL AUSTRALIA: Children all around Australia are turning up to their classrooms wearing orange for Harmony Day and they're talking about harmony. The liberal and national politicians in this building are here talking about making it ok to deliver racial insults.

LINDA BURNEY, LABOR MP: If people think that racial discrimination is not an issue in this country, then they should stand in the shoes of people from a migrant background and they should stand in the shoes of Aboriginal people.

The government still has to get enough support in parliament to get its changes through, so it doesn't look like there'll be harmony on this controversial topic anytime soon!

Discussion Questions

1. As a class, discuss the BTN Racial Discrimination Act story. What were the main points of the discussion?2. What does Harmony Day celebrate?3. Federal politicians have been arguing about Australia’s ____________ Discrimination Act.4. Give an example of racial discrimination in Australia. 5. When did the Federal Government introduce the Racial Discrimination Act?6. The Act made it illegal to treat someone unfairly because of their ______________.7. Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act makes it illegal to…8. What changes does the Government want to make to 18C?9. Why are some politicians against the changes? 10. Name three things you learnt watching the BTN story.

Comments (57)

nikeadidas1738 :

01 Jun 2017 8:06:18pm

so if they changed that rule and made a those 3 words into one (harass) will that give people the idea about saying racial slurs and spitting word that they shouldn't even say out would not be a problem?

Katie :

Maya :

07 Apr 2017 3:07:34pm

In reference to SALLY's comment, I think that yes, free speech is important and yes, we should draw the line at harassment, however harassment can be subtle and obvious, and little comments that most wouldn't consider harassment actually validate attitudes that are discriminatory. As for your comments on how the Europeans developed this society and without them it wouldn't be a good one, this is simply ignorant. Please keep in mind that the Europeans slaughtered, enslaved and hated on millions of innocent people when they were 'building this society'. Free speech is great if it's commenting on the colour of someone's t- shirt, not promoting attitudes that condone violence and hate.

Mimi :

Maya :

31 Mar 2017 12:48:22pm

I completely disagree with the opinions of the liberal government, purely because if hate crimes are being made legal people are saying that offensive language that can cause people to harm themselves is valid.

Sally :

31 Mar 2017 12:33:00pm

I know that this is a very unpopular opinion, but I agree with Malcom. Free speech is important, and this whole political correctness thing is highly overrated. Soon it will be illegal for kids to call someone cute because that person was trying to be cool, and that's just silly. So what if a white person is best for a particular job? Not to be mean, but it's because of us "whities" that Australia is a country everyone wants to live in. And the Europeans did that in little over 200 years.You may not agree with me, and you don't have to. That's the beauty of freedom of speech. Everyone haas the right to talk, but HARASSING is where we should draw the line.

Josh :

Elieyah :

30 Mar 2017 12:57:08pm

I believe they shouldn't be treated the way they were in the early 1900's, because everyone should be treated the same as everyone else in the world, and this is why, It doesn't matter what you look like you're still a part of the community!

Blake :

Georgia :

30 Mar 2017 10:27:24am

I am proud to say that I am a member of the Jewish community and I disagree with whatMalcom Turnbull is saying about changing to language of the 18c law.I think that racism, insults, humiliation and intimidation are bad things. I think that people in Australia are using those words in a very bad way, so if we get rid of the words insult ,affend,humiliate and imtimadate, people in Australia will think that it is ok to say those words in what ever way they want.

Jasmin :

30 Mar 2017 10:19:25am

As a member of the Jewish community I strongly think that all races should not have to suffer by being insulted because that the language of the 18c is being changed and taking out 3 verbs from it and changing it to HARASS as that could lead to people thinking that it is ok to do all of those other 3 verbs.1`

Seb :

30 Mar 2017 10:14:52am

I believe that they shouldn't take out offend, insult and humiliate and add harras because Some races might be ok but the minor races like Jewish people will be offended by it. My class was talking about what would a offensive comment this was one of them YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED WITH HITLA! If the person is ofended and goes to the police they won't do anything. But if they just add harras then it will be better for the whole of Australia.

Flynn :

30 Mar 2017 9:54:29am

In my opinion the racial discrimination act or 18C should be harassed instead of the other three things because they mean the same thing pretty much but it would make it harder to understand for younger kids but I do believe that it should be harassed

Rhys :

Matthew :

30 Mar 2017 9:52:11am

I think that Malcom Turnbulls idea is great because when you use the words in the original 18C, it makes the indigenous people sound weak and vonruble but when using the word harass, it would just mean to hurt them because of their race.